Deaths
which occurred on a May 23:
 2001
Asher Iluz [photo >], 33, Israeli, in a cross-fire
ambush on the road outside Ariel, West Bank. He driving his car on his way
to supervise a road paving between Ariel to Rehalim. Also in the car was
his bodyguard Yitzhak Goldstein, 29. The shots came from the village of
Ariel. The two Israelis drove 300 meters under fire before Iluz was fatally
shot in the head and Goldstein was wounded by shrapnel after he managed
to fire back at the ambushers. The ambushers used both M-16s and Kalashnikov
submachine guns. This brings the al-Aqsa intifada body count to 472 Palestinians
and 85 Israelis.
2001: 14 Mexican undocumented immigrants,
of thirst, 40 km inside the US, in the desert near Wellton, Arizona,
with temperatures reaching 46ºC. They were among a group of 27 smuggled
into the US on 19 May east of Yuma in the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife
Refuge. The smugglers left them there, promising to return with water and
instructing them to walk for "a couple of hours" to a highway (which actually
was more than 80 km away). One of the survivors dies the next day while
being transported to a hospital by the Border Patrol.
2001
Jonathan Stauffer, 15, of neisseria meninigitidis, freshman at
West Branch High School, in Alliance, Ohio. The death from the same cause
of another student from the same school on 28 May would cause a scare and
motivate a preventive mass vaccination.
1994 Miguel Peralta,
teniente, por una bomba adosada a su coche por terroristas de ETA (Euzkadi
Ta Askatasuna).
1992 Giovanni Falcone, anti-mafia
judge, by the explosion of 500 kg of TNT at the passage of his car in Palermo.
1992 Bo and Virginia Simmons, of Daingerfield, Texas, murdered.
Of this Tony Lee Walker, a Black, would be convicted in 1993. He would be
executed by lethal injection on 10 September 2002.
1992 Atahualpa
Yupanqui, cantautor y escritor argentino.
1986 Sterling
Hayden, actor y escritor estadounidense.
1955 Auguste
Elisée Chabaud, French painter, sculptor, and writer, born
on 03 (04?) October 1882.
1945
Heinrich Himmler, 44, Reichsführer of the SS, suicide
^top^
The architect of Hitler's program to exterminate European Jews commits
suicide in Luneburg prison, one day after being arrested by the British.
As head of the Waffen-Schutzstaffel
("Armed Black Shirts"), the military arm of the Nazi Party, and assistant
chief of the Gestapo (the secret police), Himmler was able over time
to consolidate his control over all police forces of the Reich. The
power he would ultimately wield would rival that of the German army;
it would also prove highly effective in eliminating all opposition
to Hitler and the party, as well as in carrying out the Führer's
Final Solution. It was Himmler who organized the creation of death
camps throughout Eastern Europe and a pool of slave laborers.
Himmler's megalomania, which included
a plan to surrender to the Western Allies late in the war in order
to pursue the fight against Russia unimpeded, caused Hitler to strip
him of all his offices and order his arrest. Himmler attempted to
slip out of Germany disguised as a soldier, but was caught by the
British. He swallowed a cyanide capsule a day later. Himmler has been
portrayed in many films, including The Eagle Has Landed,
with Donald Pleasance as Himmler. |
1941,
130 sailors on HMS Kelly, sunk by German dive-bombers
^top^
One of the survivors is Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten, second cousin
of King George VI of Britain and the only man other than the king
to hold rank in all three military services simultaneously. He is
among those thrown into the Mediterranean Sea when his destroyer is
among several British cruisers, destroyers, and battleships sunk off
Crete by German dive-bombers. The Kelly was attacked by 24
bombers; 130 crewmembers were killed. Mountbatten was still on the
bridge of the ship when it finally flipped over; nevertheless, he
managed to swim to shore and take control of the rescue operation.
He would ultimately accept, as senior
Allied officer present, the surrender of Japanese land forces within
Southeast Asia by General Sieshiro Itagaki. Mountbatten survived the
terror of war against the Axis powers, only to be killed by an Irish
Republic Army bomb, planted on his boat, on August 26, 1979.
Side note: Just a day before
the sinking of the Kelly, the battleship Valiant
was damaged but not sunk during an equally vicious German air attack,
also off Crete, which succeeded in sinking two cruisers and four destroyers.
Among the crewmen of the Valiant was Lord Mountbatten's nephew,
Prince Philip of Greece. |
1939: 26 sailors aboard the US Navy submarine Squalus
as it goes down off New Hampshire in 75 meters of water. 33 of the 59 men
aboard are saved in a daring rescue with a diving bell.
1937
John Davison Rockfeller, multmillianaire industrialist, philanthropist,
in Ormond Beach, Florida.
1934
Bonnie Parker, 23,and Clyde
Barrow, 25, shot dead by police
^top^
The
notorious Depression-era outlaws Bonnie and Clyde are shot to death
by Texas and Louisiana state police officers as they attempt to escape
apprehension in a stolen 1934 Ford V-8 near Bienville Parish, Louisiana..
Bonnie and Clyde had met in Texas in
1930 while nineteen-year-old Bonnie was visiting her husband in a
Texas jail, where he was for murder. At the time, Bonnie was tending
bar. Clyde was arrested for burglary and sent to prison soon after
they met. Bonnie smuggled a gun, taped to her thigh, into prison to
help him escape. He was eventually caught in Ohio and brought back
to prison. When a personal appeal from his mother to the Texas governor
earned his release in 1932, he vowed never to return.
After
Bonnie was caught stealing a car, she had to spend three months in
prison, while Clyde went on a robbery spree. He then killed a sheriff
and deputy at a barn dance in Oklahoma. In the fall of 1932, the pair
spent their time carrying out small-time robberies throughout Texas
and Oklahoma. At one such robbery, they picked up W. D. Jones, a gas
station attendant, who joined their team for the next 18 months. Buck
Barrow, Clyde's brother who was recently pardoned by the new Texas
governor, Ma Ferguson, also joined the gang, along with his wife.
Later they were joined by escaped murderer Raymond Hamilton.
The media latched onto Bonnie and Clyde,
who were nicknamed "Suicide Sal" and "Texas Rattlesnake," respectively.
The pair loved the attention, posing for snapshots with their arsenal
of weapons. In early 1934, they barely escaped a trap in Missouri,
killing two lawmen in the ensuing shootout. Buck and his wife, Blanche,
were shot and captured, but Buck died from his wounds. Texas Ranger
Frank Hamer finally caught up with Bonnie and Clyde in May, after
tracking them for more than three months.
For over two years, the couple evaded local police officers in rural
counties of Texas, Louisiana, and New Mexico, and it was not until
the Bureau of Investigation (later known as the FBI) became involved
that the law finally gained ground on Bonnie and Clyde. The Bureau
of Investigation, curiously enough, could only investigate the two
on the grounds of the National Motor Vehicle Act, which stipulated
that federal agents had jurisdiction to pursue suspects accused of
interstate transportation of a stolen automobile. Investigators initially
traced a stolen vehicle to the house of Clyde Barrow's aunt. As officers
stepped up the pressure to catch Bonnie and Clyde, the well-armed
couple went about adding to their own firepower.
In the spring of 1934, following a tip, federal agents traced the
gang to a remote county in southwest Louisiana. A certain Methvin
family was said to have been aiding and abetting the Bonnie and Clyde
gang for over a year and it was learned that Bonnie and Clyde, along
with some of the Methvins, had staged a party at Black Lake, Louisiana,
on the night of 21 May.
Two days later, just before dawn, a posse of police officers from
Texas and Louisiana, including Texas Ranger Frank Hamer who had been
tracking the couple for more than three months., laid an ambush for
Bonnie and Clyde along the highway near Gibsland and Sailes, Louisiana.
In the early morning, Bonnie and Clyde appeared in their tan 1934
Ford V-8. . The officers reported that the coupe attempted to flee,
but more likely, owing to the fact that Bonnie and Clyde had killed
five policemen, the posse opened fire without warning. In two minutes,
deputies shoot 187 bullets. Bonnie and Clyde were each shot over twenty
times, and were dead by the time their Ford rolled to a stop against
an embankment on the south side of the road. Their bullet-riddled
1934 Ford later became a valuable collectible.
Bonnie and Clyde gained a place in popular mythology as dustbowl Robin
Hoods. The 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde, starring Warren Beatty
as Clyde and Faye Dunaway as Bonnie, portrayed a charming and irreverent
pair who took their game too far. Examination of the couple's past,
as well as an examination of their victims, shows that Bonnie and
Clyde were more likely carefree killers. Their popularity owed to
the mistrust of the authorities of the Dustbowl during the Depression
era, and to the couple's uncanny ability to elude the police for over
two years. |
1918 Maxime-Émile-Louis Maufra, French Impressionist
painter and printmaker born on 17 May 1861. — MORE
ON MAUFRA AT ART “4” MAY with
links to images.
1906 Henrik Ibsen, escritor noruego.
1896 José Asunción Silva Gómez, poeta y prosista colombiano.
1895 Franz
Ernst Neumann, German mathematician born on 11 Sep 1798. He
was the father of mathematician Carl
Gottfried Neumann, [07 May 1832 – 27 Mar 1925].
1889
Georges
Henri Halphen, French mathematician born on 30 October 1844.
1885 Thomas
Clausen, Danish mathematician and astronomer born on 16 January
1801. He wrote over 150 papers on pure mathematics, applied mathematics,
astronomy and geophysics. In 1854 he proved that F6, the 6th Fermat number
2n+ 1 where n = 26, is not a prime. It is 18'446'744'073'709'551'617,
which, in 1880, Landry prime factored as 274'177 x 67'280'421'310'721.
The first to show that, contrary to Fermat's August 1640 guess, not all
the Fermat numbers Fp (numbers of the form 2n+ 1 where n is the
pth power of 2) were prime, was Euler
[15 Apr 1707 – 18 Sep 1783] in 1732 when he discovered that P5, 2n+
1 where n = 25, which is 4'294'967'297, has the prime factorization
641 x 6'700'417. Since then, thanks in part to supercomputers,
research into Fermat numbers has gone much further, but no Fermat number
has been proved to be a prime beyond the 4th (2n+ 1 where n =
24 , i.e. 216+ 1 = 65'537), but some have been proved
not to be prime, including all Fp with 4 < p <23 (but no factor of
F14, F20, or F22 has yet been found). For example, on 25 July 1999, John
Cosgrave announced that F382'447, 2n+ 1 where n is the 115'128-digit
number 2382'447, has the prime factor 3 x 2382'449 + 1.
It was only in 1970 that F7, the 7th Fermat number (2n+ 1 where
n = 27), 340'282'366'920'938'463'463'374'607'431'768'211'457,
was prime factorized as (116'503'103'764'643 x 29 + 1) x (11'141'971'095'088'142'685
x 29 + 1) which is 59'649'589'127'497'217 x 5'704'689'200'685'129'054'721,
though it had been proved not to be a prime more than 60 years earlier.
1873 Prilidiano Pueyrredón, pintor argentino.
1857
Augustin-Louis
Cauchy, Paris mathematician born on 21 August 1857. He pioneered
the study of analysis, both real and complex, and the theory of permutation
groups. He also researched in convergence and divergence of infinite series,
differential equations, determinants, probability and mathematical physics.
1842 José de Espronceda poeta romántico español.
Condamnés
à mort par la Révolution:
^top^
1795 (4 prairial an III):
BEDIN Jean Baptiste, gendarme, domicilié à Paris,
comme convaincu d'avoir abandonné le poste de l'arsenal, et de s'être
mêlé parmi les révoltés, par le conseil militaire à Paris.
DELORME Guillaume, domicilié à Paris, département
de la Seine, capitaine des canonniers de la section de Popincourt,
par le conseil militaire, comme convaincu d’être auteur et complice
d’un complot tendant à dissoudre la Convention nationale, en assassiner
les membres, et d’avoir subordonné la garde de ladite section.
1794 (4 prairial an II):
CHABRAL François, ex vicaire, domicilié à Troujet
(Allier), comme réfractaire à la Loi, , par le tribunal criminel dudit
département.
DUMAS Jacques François (dit Fontbroges), ex noble
et conseiller au ci-devant parlement de Bordeaux, 60 ans, né à Libourne,
domicilié à Bordeaux (Gironde), , par la commission militaire séante
à Bordeaux, comme conspirateur, pour avoir entretenu des correspondance
avec des contre-révolutionnaires décidés, notamment le commandant
du château de Loches, nommé Bois-Lambert.
HOQUOPA Fatté, 20 ans, natif de Meinz en Allemagne,
cordonnier, domicilié à Lyon (Rhône), , , par la commission révolutionnaire
séante à Lyon, comme fédéraliste.
MOINE Sébastien, prêtre, domicilié à Mourmoiron (Vaucluse),
comme réfractaire à la loi, , par le tribunal criminel dudit département.
NOURY Jacques Etienne, prêtre, domicilié à Courtezon
(Vaucluse), comme réfractaire à la loi, , par le tribunal criminel
dudit département.
ROLAND Jean Baptiste, 75 ans, tisserand, demeurant
à Febvin Pilfart, à Arras
DUMETZ Antoine François, 73 ans, menuisier à Febvin
Palfart, guillotiné à Arras
Par le tribunal révolutionnaire
de Paris:
BARTH Antoine Martin, 33 ans, né et domicilié à Paris,
comme conspirateur et comme convaincu d'être complice de la conspiration
qui a existé comme les intérêts de la république, à l'effet de l'anéantir,
et de rétablir le despotisme, soit en annulant ou faisant annuler
différents marchés .
DIDIER Pierre Louis, 35 ans, né à Givry (Aisne),
commis papetier, domicilié à Paris, comme convaincu d'avoir tenu des
propos, et fait des écrits tendant à anéantir la liberté.
LANOUE Jean Baptiste, 37 ans, peintre en Bâtiment,
domicilié à Paris, comme convaincu d'avoir tenu des propos et fait
des écrits tendants à anéantir la liberté.
LEMARCHANT Jean François, 69 ans, ouvrier en Guêtres,
fournisseur pour la République, né et domicilié à Paris, comme conspirateur
et pour fourniture défectueuse dans les magasins de la République.
PROVENCHÈRE Alexandre, ex administrateur de l’habillement,
55 ans, natif de Saint Ecboillé (Seine et Oise), domicilié à Paris,
comme prévaricateur, en faisant et favorisant des livraisons de fournitures
infidèles et défectueuses dans les magasins de la république.
DORLY André, 60 ans, né à Versailles (Seine et Oise),
commis des guerres jusqu'au 1 juillet 1793, domicilié à Paris, comme
prévaricateur.
FORTIN Gabriel Joseph, employé à l’habillement des
troupes, 44 ans, né et domicilié à Paris, comme prévaricateur.
CANOLLE Jean, 50 ans, natif de Benat en Périgord,
minéralogiste, domicilié au Péage du Roussillon, département de l’Isère,
comme conspirateur.
COITARD Avoye (dit Faville), domiciliée à Paris,
département de la Seine, condamnée à mort comme conspiratrice
... comme
contre-révolutionnaires:
BAREME Joseph Antoine, 31 ans, né à Tarascon, hussard
au 1er régiment ex-noble domicilié à Lyon (Rhône).
BAREME Joseph Auguste, 32 ans, né à Tarascon, ex-noble,
hussard au 1er régiment, domicilié à Lyon (Rhône).
BAREME Joseph Henri, 35 ans, né à Tarascon, ex-noble,
brigadier fourrier au 1er régiment d'hussards, domicilié à Tarascon
(Bouches-du-Rhône).
FERY Anne, veuve Dupré, garde-malade, âgée de 52
ans, née à Mala (Côte-d’Or), domiciliée à Paris.
GAUDON Marie Nicolas, 34 ans, né à Mégève
(Mont-Blanc), domicilié à Paris.
1793:
GUILBAUD Jean René, domestique, à la Chapelle-Hormier (Vendée),
par la commission militaire séante aux Sables, comme brigand de la
Vendée. |
1794 (4 prairial an II) Ferraud, représentant du Peuple,
a la tête coupée par BOUCHER Luc, marchand de vin, domicilié à Paris, dans
la convention nationale, ce pourquoi ledit Boucher sera par la commission
militaire établie à Paris le 6 prairial.
1782 Virgilius Erichsen,
Danish painter, active also in Russia, specialized in portraits
(especially of Catherine the Great), born on 02 September 1722. — MORE
ON ERIKSEN AT ART “4” MAY with
links to images.
1726 Jean-Baptiste Nattier, suicide
in the Bastille, French painter born on 27 September 1678. — more
1701
Captain William Kidd, hanged, for piracy and murder
^top^
At London’s Execution Dock, British privateer William Kidd, popularly
known as Captain Kidd, is hanged for his convictions on five counts
of piracy and one count of murder.
Born in Strathclyde, Scotland, Kidd established himself as a sea captain
before settling in New York, where he bought property and married.
In 1695, while in London, the earl of Bellomont, a recently appointed
governor of New York, commissioned him to defend English ships from
pirates in the Red Sea. In 1696, Kidd sailed to New York aboard the
Adventure Galley, enlisted men for the mission, and set sail for the
Indian Ocean. The expedition met with little success, and failed to
capture a major prize until February 1698, when the Quedagh Merchant,
an Indian vessel allegedly sailing under a French pass was taken.
Word of Kidd’s capture of the merchantman,
which was loaded with gold, jewels, silk, sugar, and guns, aroused
significant controversy in Britain, as the ship had an English captain.
Suspicions that he had turned to piracy were apparently confirmed
when he sailed to St. Mary’s, Madagascar, an infamous pirate haven,
where he negotiated with a known pirate and abandoned the Adventure
Galley for an unknown purpose.
From there, he traveled to the West Indies on the Quedagh Merchant,
where he learned of the piracy charges against him. Intending to clear
his name, he sailed to New York and delivered himself to the colonial
authorities, claiming that the vessels he had attacked were lawful
prizes. However, he was arrested and, as English law did not allow
pirates to be tried in the colonies, he was taken to London. In 1701,
he was tried on five charges of piracy and one charge of murdering
a crewman.
The Tories used the trial as a political
opportunity to embarrass his Whig sponsors, and the latter chose to
give up Kidd as a scapegoat rather than back his possibly correct
claims to legitimacy. He was convicted on all counts, and on 23 May
1701, he was executed by hanging. In later years, a legend grew up
around the story of William Kidd, although reports of his fabled buried
treasure have not been substantiated. |
1669 Joris Abrahamszoon van der Haagen, Dutch painter born
in the period 1615-1620. — links
to images.
1668 Philips Wouwerman, Dutch Baroque
era painter born in 1619. — MORE
ON WOUWERMAN AT ART “4” MAY
with links to images.
1648 Louis Le Nain, French
Baroque era painter born in 1593 (1603?), brother of Antoine
Le Nain [1588 – 25 May 1648] and Mathieu
Le Nain “le Chevalier” [1607 – 20 Apr 1677]. The
three brothers worked together, often on the same picture, so that it is
impossible to make individual attributions and the three brothers are treated
as a single artist. — MORE
ON LE NAIN AT ART “4” MAY
with links to images.
1627 Luis de Góngora y Argote,
poeta y dramaturgo español.
^top^
1498 Girolamo Savonarola
Ferrariensis, Domenico da Pescia, and Silvestro Maruffi,
tortured, hanged and burnt in Piazza Signoria, in Florence
 Savonarola
was an Italian Dominican preacher, reformer, and martyr, renowned
for his clash with tyrannical rulers and a corrupt clergy. After the
overthrow of the Medici in 1494, Savonarola was the sole leader of
Florence, setting up a democratic republic. His chief enemies were
the Duke of Milan and Pope Alexander VI, who issued numerous restraints
against him, all of which were ignored.
Girolamo Savonarola, born on 21 September 1452 in Ferrara, was for
some time prior of the Convent of San Marco. Inspired by an aversion
for worldly things, and the highest religious ideals, with his example
and his obscurely threatening and prophetic sermons he condemned first
the corrupt way of life of Florence then the church hierarchy in Rome.
Ignoring numerous reprimands and contemptuous of danger, he was condemned
to death: together with his fellow friars, da Pescia and Maruffi.
In the beginning Savonarola
was filled with zeal, piety, and self-sacrifice for the regeneration
of religious life. He was led to offend against these virtues by his
fanaticism, obstinacy, and disobedience. He was not a heretic in matters
of faith. The erection of his statue at the foot of Luther's monument
at Worms as a reputed "forerunner of the Reformation" is entirely
unwarranted. Among his writings mention should be made of: Triumphus
Crucis de fidei veritate (Florence, 1497), his chief work, an
apology for Christianity; Compendium revelationum (Florence,
1495); Scelta di prediche e scritti, Trattato circa il
Reggimento di Firenze ; further letters in the Archivio.
storico italiano, App. XIII ; poems edited by Rians. The Dialogo
della verita (1497) and fifteen sermons were placed later on
the Index of Prohibited Books.
SAVONAROLA ONLINE: (English translation): Sermon
on the Our Father (11 January 1496)
[click
on image for portrait of Savonarola by Fra Bartolomeo >]
|
|
1533
Henry VIII gets rid of his first
wife.. ^top^
Many
others lost their heads to Henry VIII's multiple marriages, and to
the creation of the Church of England to attempt to legitimize them.
